The global organ shortage
Subtitle: economic causes, human consequences, policy responses
By: T. Randolph Beard, David Kaserman, and Rigmar Osterkamp ; with a foreword by Friedrich Breyer
Contributors: Kaserman, David L., author; Osterkamp, Rigmar, author
Publisher: Stanford Economics and Finance, an imprint of Stanford University Press; Stanford Economics and Finance
Published: 2012
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9780804784092
Copyright date: 2013
Subjects: Donation of organs, tissues; Government policy; Economic aspects; Procurement of organs, tissues
Description: Although organ transplants provide the best, and often the only, effective therapy for many otherwise fatal conditions, the great benefits of transplantation go largely unrealized because of failures in the organ acquisition process. In the United States, for instance, more than 10,000 people die every year either awaiting transplantation, or as a result of deteriorating health exacerbated by the shortage of organs. Issues pertaining to organ donation and transplantation represent, perhaps, the most complex and morally controversial medical dilemmas aside from abortion and euthanasia. However, these quandaries are not unsolvable. This book proposes compensating organ donors within a publicly controlled monopsony. This proposal is quite similar to current practice in Spain, where compensation for cadaveric donation now occurs "in secret," as this text reveals. To build their recommendations, the authors provide a medical history of transplantation, a history of the development of national laws and waiting lists, a careful examination of the social costs and benefits of transplantation, a discussion of the causes of organ shortages, an evaluation of "partial" reforms tried or proposed, an extensive ethical evaluation of the current system and its competitors. -- Book cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The evolution of organ transplantation and procurement policy; title: Consequences of the current policy; title: Social costs and benefits of transplants; title: Economic and political causes of the shortage of organs; title: Reforms short of open donor compensation; title: An assessment of the moral basis of alternative organ donation rules; title: Donor reaction to compensation and a proposal for a public monopsony for organ acquisition.